Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has flatly denied a report that his country was spying on the US.

A Politico article cites three former senior US officials who say Israel was likely behind surveillance devices found near the White House.

But a statement from Mr Netanyahu's office said this was "a blatant lie".

"There is a longstanding commitment, and a directive from the Israeli government not to engage in any intelligence operations in the US."

BBC reporters have contacted the state department for comment.

Israel is days away from a general election, with Mr Netanyahu fighting to hold on to his office.

The allegations appeared in an exclusive story for US news site Politico on Thursday.

International mobile subscriber identity-catchers (IMSI catchers) - informally known as StingRays - were reportedly found near the presidential residence and by other sensitive sites across Washington DC during the Trump presidency.

These devices act like mobile phone towers, tricking phones into sending their location, identity information, and even call contents and data usage.

One of the former officials who spoke anonymously to the site said the StingRays were likely designed to spy on President Trump. He said it is not clear if they succeeded.

FBI counterintelligence agents conducted analysis to find out where they came from. "It was pretty clear that the Israelis were responsible," a former senior intelligence official told Politico.

This same official also criticised the Trump administration, saying they did not publicly or privately reprimand the Israeli government for the alleged spying.

"I'm not aware of any accountability at all," the former official said.

The Cold War spy technology which we all use Why phones that secretly listen to us are a myth

Despite Mr Netanyahu's denials, Israel has spied on the US in the past.

Rafi Eitan - a Mossad agent who captured Nazi Adolf Eichmann in 1960 - was exposed in the 1980s as the handler of Jonathan Pollard, a US analyst who gave thousands of top secret documents to Israel.

In 2006, former US Department of Defense employee Lawrence Franklin received a 13-year prison sentence for passing classified documents on US policy towards Iran to Israel. His sentence was later reduced to ten months' house arrest.

Also, regarding that last paragraph, how the fuck do you go from a 13 year jail sentence to just serving 10 months lazing around at home?

_________________I could be the catalyst that sparks the revolutionI could be an inmate in a long-term institutionI could dream to wide extremes, I could do or dieI could yawn and be withdrawn and watch the world go byWhat a waste...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has flatly denied a report that his country was spying on the US.

A Politico article cites three former senior US officials who say Israel was likely behind surveillance devices found near the White House.

But a statement from Mr Netanyahu's office said this was "a blatant lie".

"There is a longstanding commitment, and a directive from the Israeli government not to engage in any intelligence operations in the US."

BBC reporters have contacted the state department for comment.

Israel is days away from a general election, with Mr Netanyahu fighting to hold on to his office.

The allegations appeared in an exclusive story for US news site Politico on Thursday.

International mobile subscriber identity-catchers (IMSI catchers) - informally known as StingRays - were reportedly found near the presidential residence and by other sensitive sites across Washington DC during the Trump presidency.

These devices act like mobile phone towers, tricking phones into sending their location, identity information, and even call contents and data usage.

One of the former officials who spoke anonymously to the site said the StingRays were likely designed to spy on President Trump. He said it is not clear if they succeeded.

FBI counterintelligence agents conducted analysis to find out where they came from. "It was pretty clear that the Israelis were responsible," a former senior intelligence official told Politico.

This same official also criticised the Trump administration, saying they did not publicly or privately reprimand the Israeli government for the alleged spying.

"I'm not aware of any accountability at all," the former official said.

The Cold War spy technology which we all use Why phones that secretly listen to us are a myth

Despite Mr Netanyahu's denials, Israel has spied on the US in the past.

Rafi Eitan - a Mossad agent who captured Nazi Adolf Eichmann in 1960 - was exposed in the 1980s as the handler of Jonathan Pollard, a US analyst who gave thousands of top secret documents to Israel.

In 2006, former US Department of Defense employee Lawrence Franklin received a 13-year prison sentence for passing classified documents on US policy towards Iran to Israel. His sentence was later reduced to ten months' house arrest.

Also, regarding that last paragraphy, how the fuck do you go from a 13 year jail sentence to just serving 10 months lazing around at home?

How?

From Lawrence Franklin @ Wikipedia:

Quote:

On January 20, 2006, Judge T.S. Ellis, III sentenced Franklin to 12 years and 7 months in prison and a $10,000 fine for passing classified information to a pro-Israel lobby group and an Israeli diplomat but Franklin was to remain free pending his cooperation with prosecutors in the cases against Rosen and Weissman.[15]

In August, he denied Weissman and Rosen's motion to dismiss their indictment on the grounds that the government could still prosecute and punish those who retransmitted classified information orally regardless of whether they had a security clearance or not,[16] an interpretation of the Espionage Act that could have wide-reaching implications if it were allowed to become legal precedent.[by whom?]

A significant problem for the government arose in a pre-trial ruling in August 2006, when veteran trial judge T.S. Ellis III ruled that line to mean that prosecutors had to show that U.S. interests were harmed, not just that Rosen and Weissman relayed secrets to a foreign power: Israel. Relaying secrets to friends of the United States, Ellis ruled, was not in and of itself criminal. For a crime to be committed, he wrote in his opinion, the accused must have sought both benefit to another nation as well as to harm the United States. Ellis' legal rulings set a high bar for the prosecutors, including a requirement to prove that Rosen and Weissman knowingly meant to harm the United States or aid another country. [2]

In May 2009, federal prosecutors dropped the charges against Rosen and Weissman, citing that restrictions the judge had placed on the case made a conviction unlikely. Lawyers familiar with the case noted that the prosecutors' case had many other problems as well, most notably that Weissman and Rosen had a very strong defense .[citation needed]

On June 11, prosecutors asked Judge Ellis to reduce Franklin's sentence to eight years for his cooperation. Judge Ellis said the dropping of the case against Rosen and Weissman was a "significant" factor in the sentencing of Franklin and sentenced him to ten months house arrest along with 100 hours of community service. Ellis said Franklin's community service should consist of "speaking to young people about the importance of public officials obeying the law".[2][3]

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